The Amur sculpin (''Mesocottus haitej'') is a
species of
freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
sculpin
A sculpin is a type of fish that belongs to the superfamily Cottoidea in the order Scorpaeniformes.Kane, E. A. and T. E. Higham. (2012)Life in the flow lane: differences in pectoral fin morphology suggest transitions in station-holding demand a ...
native to eastern
Asia where it is found in
Russia,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
Mongolia - in the
Amur River
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...
basin and some adjacent territories (the
Tugur and the
Uda Rivers flowing into the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
north from the Amur River, north-west of Sakhalin Island opposite the mouth of the Amur River). The Amur sculpin grows to a length of
TL. This species is the only known member of its
genus. According to the result of a pilot phylogenetic analysis, the freshwater ''Mesocottus'' is a sister lineage to the ''
Cottus'' clade.
References
Cottidae
Fish described in 1869
{{Scorpaeniformes-stub